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How to Not Be Afraid

Ever wanted to jump out of an airplane, give a major speech to a sold-out crowd, pet an anaconda, or fight back the zombie apocalypse…or at least, not be afraid to do any of the following?

One of the biggest ways to conquer fear is to be generous. Okay…maybe generosity won’t conquer your fear of snakes or heights, but it does have an amazing propensity to fight fears of inadequacy, not having enough, not keeping up, and so much more.

In The Generosity Bet (and its predecessor, Stories of the Generous Life), we interviewed 42 people about their life stories and what they have learned about giving along the way. These people ranged from janitors to billionaires, college students to retirees, farmers to Wall Street traders. But one theme common to all of them? They are some of the most fearless people you’ll ever meet.

Generosity does that to you. It weasels out all the little things you hold onto, the things you’re afraid to let go, the fears and little pleasures you’ve nestled away in quiet dark places where you think no one else will find them, so no one else can want them or take them. It makes you confront your heart and realize how often you’ve doubted that God is good and that God will provide when He’s asked you to give.

Generosity pulls your heart into the light. Wide-eyed and blinking and maybe stumbling a little, you begin to uncurl your fingers around the things that once seemed so important—that time, those resources, that influence, that security in your stuff, that appearance of being better than the Joneses, that control.

And as you begin to give away, you begin to discover something else. You begin to see, to truly see people and needs and what it means to be alive and human. And you begin to see God, to see that He’s still vibrantly alive and working and light is spreading and the darkness is fading away.

You find that the more you give away, the more your hands come back full—come back full of joy. And the more you soak your heart in joy, the more your hands can give away, because you don’t need stuff to make you feel good or look okay. Most of all, the more you give away, the less you fear because you don’t have the need to hold on so tight anymore.

So take a step toward fearlessness and toward joy. Be generous.

For more ideas on how to start your generosity journey, pick up a copy of The Generosity Bet today!